Apple iPhone Coming To Walmart Sunday At 1% Discount (AAPL)

Walmart will sell the 8 GB iPhone for $197, a 1% discount from its $199 retail price; and the 16 GB iPhone for $297, a 0.7% discount from its $299 retail price.

This is great news for Apple: It adds another 2,500 distribution points for the iPhone, and makes sure that smartphone competitors like the Google (GOOG) G1 aren't the only ones Walmart shoppers are exposed to. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster thinks Apple could sell 4.5 million iPhones at Walmart next year.

If each Walmart store gets an average 200 iPhones as inventory, that's 500,000 iPhone shipments Apple can recognize this quarter. Even if each store gets an average 100 iPhones, that will nicely pad this quarter's numbers. (And if for some reason Apple waits until next quarter to recognize the shipments, they'll help during a seasonally slow March quarter.)

Missing from Walmart's release: The rumored $99 iPhone. We never thought this rumor was happening just yet, but we still think it's a good idea. Apple is in the first phase of a very important market share land grab, and soon it will be able to cut iPhone prices by $100 while keeping the same margins, according to multiple Wall Street analysts. We still think Apple will sell a $99 iPhone by the middle of next year.